My First Attempt At Papa Johns Style Pizza

[Steeb]

Well I finally tried Randy's American Style (aka Papa Johns Style) dough. I elected to make two smaller pizzas rather than one large one. I made them slightly different, altering the second one based on the results of the first pizza.

The first one was hand-pressed and ended up being a little too thick in the middle. The crust came out with the taste and texture of a Papa Johns hand-tossed pizza. Because of it being too thick, I decided to roll out the second batch of dough with a rolling pin. This seemed to change the texture, and even the taste, of the crust. While it was still good, the second pizza lacked a certain something that the first one did. Next time, I will hand-press the dough out, leaving a good size edge, and work better at getting the middle thinner. I will post progress pics of the two shortly.

Here are the finished pizzas:

[Steeb]

Here are a couple of stages of the dough - after 24 hours in the fridge, after being separated, and after warming to room-temperature:

[Steeb]

Here's the first pizza - hand-pressed & dressed:

[Steeb]

The second pizza was rolled out with a rolling pin. The edges turned out too thin and the overall crust was denser and chewier (is that a word?) and lacked the airy texture of the first pizza. Hand-stretching is the only way, apparently, to get this crust right. Here it is dressed, along with a couple of pics of the slices:

[Randy]

You are getting close.
Try this video for shaping but skip the part where she uses a rolling pin.
http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/cvt033.asp
Great first effort.

Randy

[Pete-zza]

Steeb,

As Randy has pointed out in another thread, his formulation for the American style produces a good-sized 16-inch pizza or two 12-inch pizzas that are a bit thinner than the 16-inch. Doing some rough calculations, I estimate that the dough for the 16-inch size weighs around 28 ounces. By my calculation, using the Lehmann/Ostrander thickness grading system, the thickness factor for Randy's 16-inch pizza is around 0.14. For each of the 12-inch pizzas (which use around 14 ounces of dough), the thickness factor is around 0.125. For comparison purposes, a thin-crust thickness under the Lehmann/Ostrander system is around 0.10 (e.g., a NY style), 0.11 (average, or medium) and 0.12-0.13 (thick).

I mention this since it is possible for you to use a thinner dough if you would like to have the crust thinner in the center without enlarging the rim to compensate. Since Randy's ingredient amounts are fairly easy to convert to baker's percents, it would be pretty straightforward to calculate the amount of dough (and ingredients) to use for any size pizza and any crust thickness you would like to try. If this is of interest to you, I can help you with the scaling of the recipe if you tell me what size and thickness you want to experiment with.

Peter

[Steeb]

Here is tonight's pizza. I made one large pizza this time, rather than two smaller ones. It was hand-mixed and left in the fridge for about 30 hours. I let it warm to room temperature for about an hour. I used Sir Lancelot High Gluten flour and SAF Perfect Rise yeast (I was finally able to find it at Smith's.) It came out great, and I'm planning on having the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I'm finally getting the whole "hand-tossed" thing down - I can't throw the dough, of course, but at least I can get it to stretch out without tearing. When I make another hand-tossed, I'll experiment a little with the size of the crust edge to see what I like best. This is a great recipe!



Here's the dressed pizza on the peel, ready to be popped onto the stone.

[Steeb]

Here's the finished pizza.

[Steeb]

And the leftovers...

[Randy]

I made one last night myself.  It took me nearly three years to get to the level you are at.
Great looking pizza..
I have been playing with the water, going to 9.8 oz and mixing instructions if your interested.  I will post pictures today.

Randy

[Steeb]

Thanks Randy, though it's really your recipe that's making it turn out so well! I'm going to keep practicing with this recipe until I can get a more uniform crust, but other than that I'm extremely happy with this recipe. As for the different amounts of water, because I'm using a glass measuring cup that goes from 9oz to 10 oz, I have to basically guess for the decimal part. Mine will probably fluctuate anywhere from 9.5 to 9.9 oz on any given day. Once I can get a good scale, I will be able to really make those precise changes and get it down perfectly.

Thanks again for all of your help, Randy! Your new pics look great, as usual!

[Randy]

If you are kneading this by hand try letting it rest about 5 minutes after you first form the dough, then knead as you normally would.  You can vary the amount of sugar and honey to suit your taste.

Looking at your dough ball pictures, add a bit more water.  When its right the dough ball will want to be a little flatter form the water weight.  Kinda of wider than taller.

On ours we like very hot sausage, pineapple and pepperoni.  What do you put on yours?

Randy

[Steeb]

If you are kneading this by hand try letting it rest about 5 minutes after you first form the dough, then knead as you normally would.  You can vary the amount of sugar and honey to suit your taste.

Looking at your dough ball pictures, add a bit more water.  When its right the dough ball will want to be a little flatter form the water weight.  Kinda of wider than taller.

On ours we like very hot sausage, pineapple and pepperoni.  What do you put on yours?

Randy

I am kneading it by hand - old fashioned-syle like my grandma taught me when I was learning to make her homemade cinnamon rolls (which is also how I learned how to handle yeast - i.e. use a candy thermometer to monitor temperature, etc.) The dough ball pictures were from the first attempt - the second attempt's dough looked much better. I treated this batch like I do the cinnamon rolls - I slowly add the flour until it gets to the right consistency. I wish I would have taken a picture of the dough this time. 

I'll have to try the thing with waiting 5 mintutes - never thought of that. As for toppings, I've just been using basic pepperoni and mozzarella. I'm going to use bacon next time, I think. In fact, I'm planning on making a DKM Thin Crust sometime Saturday, so maybe I'll try bacon then. I would love to find the good callogen cased pepperoni that Steve's found, but so far no luck. I'd also love to find some good Italian sausage like you get when you order a pizza from Papa Johns or Pizza Hut.

[DEnd]

I'll agree that your dough needs more water...  or it has been allowed to dry too much.  If it gets like it is in the pictures you can put a wet paper towel on top of the dough ball for an hour or so.

As far as your hand pressing technique when you first start off with your dough ball take your pizza cutter and spin it lightly around the edge of your dough ball to create a light line.  then cup your hands with your index fingers together (fingers pointed down) to match the diameter of just inside the dough ball. Press down.  You should notice the line moving up just slightly.  This starts the forming of the crust Then place you hands palm down and cross your thumbs and index fingers so that your indexfingers make an X and your middle fingers are touching at their tips.  your index fingers should be touching your middle fingers middle knuckle.  with your hands like this place the tips of your fingers in the indentation you made in the dough ball, then press down and out splaying your fingers as you do so.  Do this while rotating the dough ball so as to create a circle.  you should notice that the line you created with the pizza cutter is now on the top of the dough ball.  This has now created the outer crust of the pizza.  Flip the dough ball over and with one hand match the diameter of the crust with you hand on the side, with your hand placed on the thin part you just created.  With your other hand place your fingers just inside the cup of your hand and pull the dough through splaying your fingers as you do so.  You should have even contact with your entire pinkie finger of your other had and onto that hands side.  Then when you are 2-3 inches from the final diameter pick up the dough and slap it to its final diameter.  Slapping is just putting the dough in one hand and catching it with the other as the first hand moves up the other arm. 

Once you get that down then you can go make $5.25 an hour at PJ's

And if you tear the dough don't worry PJ's will gladly sell you a dough repair kit. 

[eric22]

Magic.